Birds have fascinated people for millennia. We are fascinated by their brilliant colors, their ability to fly, their great diversity (over 11,000 species worldwide), and their antics. Because they possess a wide range of physical capabilities, with most sharing the gift of flight, birds are able to inhabit almost every corner of the earth. They are the consummate traveler. One of the long-range travelers, the Arctic Tern, journeys from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back each year, and, in the process, probably spends eight months of that year in constant daylight. And birds have characteristics that set them apart from any other animal, including their feathers and hollow bones that enable them to fly, and two organs, the crop and the gizzard, that enable them to take on food quickly and grind up hard seeds to make them palatable.

The innate drive to migrate in some birds makes them world travelers, and either brings them to Point Lobos briefly in their travels or for longer periods to find food and/or a place to raise their young.

The Point Lobos docents, supported by the Foundation, have produced a brochure titled A Guide to the Birds of Point Lobos, which can be printed from this website or obtained from the Information Station.